Thursday, April 25, 2013

Blake out indefinitely; Nash, Meeks doubtful for Game 3

It looks like the Lakers will head into Game 3 against the Spurs Friday night without their top four guards.

Steve Blake
is out indefinitely with a right hamstring injury suffered in the
fourth quarter of the Lakers latest loss on Wednesday night, the team
announced Thursday afternoon. The injury was checked out by ultrasound
and found to be moderate but that is enough he is done for a while.

Both Steve Nash (hip and hamstring, for which he had his third epidural) and Jodie Meeks (sprained ankle, kept him out of Game 2) are listed as doubtful for Friday night. Mike D’Antoni said, “realistically Meeks is more doubtful than Nash,” but I wouldn’t bet on either playing.

And we all know that Kobe Bryant is sitting at home with a torn Achilles and not tweeting.

The problem for the Lakers is there advantage is inside but in the
NBA you can take away what a team does best in the playoffs — the Spurs
have fronted the post, hand help nearby and generally crowded the paint
and made life difficult for Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. The Spurs have size with Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter,
but they are throwing the kitchen sink at the Lakers bigs. The Spurs
can do that because they pay no price for largely ignoring the Lakers
guards — there is no outside shooting the Spurs fear, no guy slashing
into the paint messing up their plans.

You’re not going to beat the Spurs in the playoffs with your first
option, you are going to need your second and third options. And right
now the Lakers options are not pretty.